UK artist builds DIY Wacom Cintiq tablet for under $200

Artist and gadget builder Drew Northcott, of Bicester, UK, has just spent the last five months building his own Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet (no, not a tablet computer). Now of course, Drew could just have gone the normal way and bought the 21-incher for $3000, but as he cleverly pointed out: "where's the fun in just buying something?" He told us that after having begun the project on June 8 with nothing more than an idea, he finally "bolted the case shut" on November 9 -- almost exactly five months after having begun his odyssey. How'd our intrepid young artist do it? Basically he gutted a working Dell 1501fp monitor, stripped out the screen, and put it together with the magnetic sensor from the tablet into the Wacom case, along with a 2-millimeter acrylic panel over the screen for protection. However, that's a much simpler explanation than his 18-part online series, where Drew's got tons of photos to document each and every exciting step. So the final question is, how much did all these parts (time costs aside) run our good friend Mr. Northcott? Roughly £100 ($190), a heckuva savings by any measurement.

[Thanks, Chris M.]

[Scott @ Nov 16th 2006 7:41AM]

Definitely Kudos to him. One of the Best DIY in recent memory.

[Gil @ Nov 16th 2006 8:10AM]

Great work.

The price isn't really something you can replicate. He got lucky and got some components dirt cheap

[Blog Jones @ Nov 16th 2006 8:22AM]

a heckuva savings by any measurement.

Well, unless you count "time" as a measurement.

But seriously, cool project!

[tung @ Nov 16th 2006 8:56AM]

im writing an email to him now. hopefully he can make me one too!! hahhaha
awesome DIY!!!!

[dtrenz @ Nov 16th 2006 9:04AM]

so, i'm assuming that he didn't factor in the cost of the Dell 1501fp, since the cheapest Dell lcd you can get is $189.

that's a bit misleading.

[rockintom99 @ Nov 17th 2006 9:35AM]

Actually, if you would read it, you would notice that he factored *everything* in. You just didn't seem to factor in "eBay".

[NiGhTmArE @ Nov 16th 2006 9:16AM]

"Back to ebay, there are lots of monitors in various states of brokenness, many of them showing the classic symptoms of dead backlights, then I spot a Dell 1501fp with a failing top-light. This is ideal, the screen clearly works and the photo shows no pressure marks

�38 and it's mine, cost so far �44.33, now where�s me toolkit?"

The price obviously included the lcd ;)

But yeah, he got lucky with the parts but you could still easily build one of these for less than �300.

[enzo @ Nov 16th 2006 11:37AM]

Incredible... I'll definitely consider this for a summer project.

[Anil Chandna @ Nov 17th 2006 2:09AM]

Hi

Great job done...need your help in order to make one for myself as well. can you please let me know as to how did you mange to get the sensors and intergare that with the LCD - can we use any LCD make or it has to be dell?/ and which pen is this as there is no cord attached to the pen...is it a battery operated pen?? - how can i get this pen?? Your help in this regard would be appreciable.

[mWMA @ Dec 8th 2006 11:38PM]

The Tablet pen do not use battery. Look here on how the pen or tablet work. http://www.wacom-components.com/english/technology/emr.html
This is just one type of technology but there are other method. Touchscreen use different design.

[Sama @ Nov 24th 2006 2:38PM]

"..and put it together with the magnetic sensor from the tablet into the Wacom case,..."

He got it off from a still working tablet.

[chip @ Dec 1st 2006 11:17AM]

That's AWESOME. I've been lusting over one of those tablets. After seeing them, it makes my graphire look like a toy. I wonder if it's as precise as a Cintiq? I've never used one, but I assume one of the differences from a cintiq and just a touchscreen is dpi & also the distance between the top layer of the screen & the actual pixels. Too far and your pen tip would appear to be off by a little bit. Correct?

[sinjintek @ Dec 1st 2006 5:10PM]

no quite a replacement for the cintiq 21ux. first of all it's smaller and doesn't have the context buttons...but more importantly, it doesn't have near the resolution or the pressure sensitivity of the cintiq 21ux. with a little bit of searching and patience, you can buy the discontinued 15ux on ebay...it's still outclassed in resolution and sesitivity when compared to the 21ux, but you can get it for around $500 (US) and it works.

[Disjunto @ Dec 5th 2006 8:29AM]

I wonder how many people pronounce Bicester wrong when they read it.

[SteveMD @ May 18th 2008 11:34AM]

Very nice idea.

Great though Cintiqs are, they are vastly over-priced as Drew shows. Even taking time to get the chassis, express buttons and software custom made would bring in a Cintiq clone at well under the $3000 dollars it costs here in the U.K. A manufacturer could make a damn good copy for less than half Wacom charge and there are masses of artists, both pro and amateur who would snap them up.

Why no other tablet or monitor manufacturer has not spotted this gaping market is a mystery.

Take your idea to a manufacturer Drew, you will make a million quid.

[SteveMD @ May 18th 2008 2:42PM]

Has anyone tried out this kind of device; http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000UTIHGK/nextag1-21/ref=nosim

No pressure sensitivity, but no techy knowledge needed to install, it's just plug and play and at £120, it could be worth looking at.